Lacson cool to Pimentel’s con-ass proposal

Sen. Panfilo Lacson INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III may not get the support of senators in amending the 1987 Constitution through a constituent assembly (con-ass) unless he assures them that the Senate and the House of Representatives will vote separately on the proposed amendments, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Tuesday.

“Otherwise, signing the resolution is tantamount to [signing] our own ‘death warrant,’” Lacson said.

He was referring to the resolution to be filed this week by Pimentel that seeks to convene the House and the Senate into a con-ass for the adoption of a federal system of government.

“This early, I can say without doubt, I will not sign,” Lacson said.

Pimentel, like Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, is pushing for con-ass to revise the Constitution.

The Senate President said on Monday that a con-ass could draft a new Constitution this year for ratification by the people in a plebiscite in May 2019, to be held simultaneously with the elections.

But Pimentel claimed that in the joint session of Congress, sitting as a con-ass, the Constitution called for separate voting by the Senate and the House.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, head of the committee on constitutional amendments, said he was scheduling next week a hearing on a resolution seeking the convening of a Con-ass.

Lacson said the senators would have to first determine how they “will vote in a joint session first before we even talk of a con-ass as a mode of charter revision.”

SC interpretation

“Since the provision in the 1987 Constitution in that regard is quite vague, necessarily the Supreme Court will have to come up with an interpretation that will put to rest the issue of voting jointly or separately,” he said in a text message.

Lacson made the remarks amid talk that the Senate could be abolished under the federal system of government that the Duterte administration was envisioning.

In a television interview on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said there should be separate voting on proposed constitutional amendments by the joint session of Congress. “We are a bicameral Congress and therefore there are two Houses.”

Drilon said the Senate would be “irrelevant” should the Senate and the House vote jointly on charter changes.

“If the Senate can veto a simple bill renaming a high school by not approving it in the Senate, how much more in an amendment to the Constitution? Is that the intention of the Constitution that the other House’s views would not be considered simply because of the numbers? I don’t think so,” he said.

Sen. JV Ejercito said he was inclined to support Pimentel’s proposal to hold a plebiscite in May 2019.

“This should give a con-ass enough time to study the proposed changes to the Constitution, particularly the shift to federalism,” Ejercito said in a text message. —Christine O. Avendaño